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Reaching out for help with relocation options. Here's the situation:
I have accepted a position with a company in Emeryville. It is remote now, but will eventually be in person. No timeline yet on when that will happen, but let's assume it's 1 year from now. My wife will be working remotely for her current company that is in Texas. Combined salary will be $250k.
We own a 3200 sq ft home in Texas in a nice area. We owe $200k and could sell it for $500k. We could probably gather up another $25k in cash.
We have spent the last 3 months living in a rented 1300 sqft basement in Utah to be close to our adult kids. This has taught us a couple of things:
* we love the outdoor activities of being close to mountains for hiking
* we could downsize to 1300 sqft
* we miss having natural light (basement windows can't compare to our floor to ceiling windows in Texas)
* we like to change our space to make it feel like our own (which we can't do in our current rental)
* we are not fans of sharing walls/ceiling/floor with neighbors
So here are the questions:
1. Where to live in the Bay Area for ease of (eventual) commute, access to outdoor activities, and ability to afford the place we live?
2. Should we rent or buy in the Bay Area?
3. If we rent a house how likely is it that we make changes to make it our own - paint, change out the sink, etc?
4. Is the Bay Area a buyer's market right now? Texas is definitely in a seller's market and holding for a while may not really cost us anything, except we can't buy without the equity tied up in the house.
1. If you want an easy commute I think that limits you to the East Bay. Emeryville doesn't have a BART station but has interstate 80 going right through it. I'm not as familiar with Emeryville as some so someone else might have a more informed opinion of whats an easy commute.
2. Rent first. Generally speaking many people from Texas or that part of the country take some time adjusting to the Bay Area- its a different feel in many aspects. Rent first to see what you like and you'll have flexibility to move somewhere else if you hate it or find a home if you love it.
3. Depends on the landlord, but in my experience not likely
4. Rental market in SF and San Jose is a renters market for now, but prices are slowly climbing up. I'm sure you've heard of the mass exodus from SF this past year, but in the suburbs renting and buying is more expensive than ever. Most of the "SF exodus" is actually going to bay area suburbs.
With your price range you will be able to afford places but it will be different than Texas. Housing stock is typically smaller and older here. Larger, tract style homes, such as in Danville, exist but are expensive and will be a longer commute.
On the plus side the Bay Area has some of the best outdoors options of any place in the country IMO. Lots of hiking available all over, so don't eliminate a city like Oakland just because its urban, it will be close to outdoor activities as well. What kind of place are you looking to live in? Urban, suburban, etc?
Berkeley and Oakland hills have access to a huge number of hiking trails. Even living closer to the water would still put your in relative close proximity to a ton of outdoor options.
1. Agreed with others that if you're factoring in commute, that really restricts you mainly to East Bay. Having said that, I think you should really evaluate with your companies whether the pre-COVID commutes are required going forward. I think we're in a new normal, where there will be more flexibility and less time required in office. If that's the case, you have a wider map to work with. In my view, looking at the East Bay, you have to be really careful about parts that have good schools and low crime, especially on the 80/880 corridor (less so inland). Not sure what your priorities are (given your kids are grown), but for me, I value safety and school quality above size of place, so would factor that in. You might find a couple ok places around Alameda, Berkeley, El Cerrito etc., but I know the school quality in those areas is more hit or miss. You could also look further inland around Walnut Creek. If you're expecting $300k down, that could put you up to $1.5M for a home, but you didn't mention your budget. If your budget is much lower, you may want to look at a condo vs home.
2. I normally say you should rent, but here, I'd probably say buy. The reasons are the home markets are going crazy in the suburbs (different than in SF proper) and interest rates are very low but are likely due to increase significantly over the next year due to inflation (huge stimulus bill, improving health/economy with COVID on the mends due to pent up demand, etc.). Bottom line, if you're on a tight budget now, I wouldn't want to be priced out in a year.
3. Agreed with others that its highly landlord dependent. If you rented, I'd definitely ask about this before signing the lease.
4. Definitely a sellers market in the suburbs. I live in an upscale suburban area of the East Bay. Prices on Redfin have increased probably at least $250k (for comps) since the beginning of the year. Homes are only staying on 4-5 days (max), selling with double digit offers, well above asking ($100-200k+ often).
I'm thinking a budget of $4000 a month. I'm torn between the flexibility of renting until we have a better idea of where we want to be and buying now so that I can get in before the prices go up even further.
I hear people mention things about a different feel in the Bay Area, but I don't understand. What's different than my regular routine of going to work (30 min commute each way currently), weekdays of watching TV in the evening or surfing the web, and then weekends of going to the movies, restaurants, or to the lake or hiking, and church and FaceTime with the kids on Sundays?
One other thing to mention is that I doubt we will stay in the area after retirement in 10-15 years. But who knows, maybe we will fall in love with it.
I think a “different feel” refers to the “general vibe” of the area. Texas, in general, as a whole, is going to be more conservative than the Bay Area is. Of course, parts of the City of Dallas, parts of Houston and Austin are considered liberal.
My recommendation is to rent first, before buying. Buying a home is a serious consideration and you definitely don’t want to buy a place in the wrong location and regret it later. There are some really nice areas in the East Bay, and unfortunately, some areas that are downright dangerous to live in. Find a place to rent, then visit areas on the weekend that you might be interested in to buy.
Well, OP, one thing you need to decide, is whether you want to do 2 moves or 1. If you rent first, you'll end up moving again, when you decide to buy. Also, if you rent first, your rent will undoubtedly go up, so you'd have to decide how much of an increase you could handle before giving up and buying. Lots to think about.
My 2 cents: do not look out in Walnut Creek or anywhere on the other side of the Berkeley hills. No need to make the commute more painful than necessary. There are niches in the Berkeley Hills and north Oakland hills that have lush parks in walking distance, hiking trails right out your door, almost. Same for El Cerrito (just north of Berkeley) and the Richmond hills. Richmond hills are a little more affordable, but too far for a practical commute IMO. I mean, if you follow my suggestion about not making the commute any more painful than it has to be.
If you can't find something affordable in the hills, no matter. You can look in the Elmwood and Claremont sections of Berkeley, or Rockridge section of Oakland (an extension of Elmwood/Claremont), or in north Berkeley. Also, El Cerrito, Albany and Kensington. And someone mentioned Alameda, too. You'll be shocked by the prices, and how much you need to pay even for a modest place, but...c'est la vie. Welcome to the East Bay.
If you decide to buy in Alameda, consult sea-level rise maps first. It's an island on the Bay, just west of Oakland. Very nice, family-oriented community with a beach, coffee shops, great neighborhood-y feel. More affordable than Berkeley, but a more difficult commute to Emeryville. Has a ferry directly to San Fran.
Landlords in the Bay Area are the same as LL's anywhere; they may allow you to paint, but not to change out fixtures and such. So buy, if you want to get creative with your space.
Start looking at listings in Albany, Berkeley, Rockridge/Oakland and El Cerrito, to get used to the sticker shock. There won't be many listings in each, because of Covid, but still, you can get an orientation about re: you can get for how much sq. footage in what town and neighborhood. Get familiar with the East Bay map from Oakland northward to El Cerrito and Albany (Berkeley's in the middle. Emeryvill's on the Bay west of Berkeley.)
Note: homes sell for anywhere from 20-40% above the listing price. Def. not a buyers' market. Reality check. One option would be to go for, say, a 2-br. with a basement you could add a spare room to.
My recommendation is to rent first, before buying. Buying a home is a serious consideration and you definitely don’t want to buy a place in the wrong location and regret it later. There are some really nice areas in the East Bay, and unfortunately, some areas that are downright dangerous to live in.
That's what we're here for, though; to steer the OP away from the bad areas. A Berkeley and El Cerrito hills recommendation, for example, is foolproof. So is Alameda. Albany too, pretty much. Notice no one suggested Oakland except Rockridge. Can't go wrong there. The only other part of Oakland I'd recommend would be Montclair.
OP, in some of these hills areas, you may only see, at first, big multi-million $$ properties. Don't get discouraged; there are smaller, more modest properties among them. It just depends on what happens to be up for sale when you're looking.
Anyway, I think we've given you plenty of turf to cover in your search. Let us know if we can be of assistance.
I think a “different feel” refers to the “general vibe” of the area. Texas, in general, as a whole, is going to be more conservative than the Bay Area is. Of course, parts of the City of Dallas, parts of Houston and Austin are considered liberal.
My recommendation is to rent first, before buying. Buying a home is a serious consideration and you definitely don’t want to buy a place in the wrong location and regret it later. There are some really nice areas in the East Bay, and unfortunately, some areas that are downright dangerous to live in. Find a place to rent, then visit areas on the weekend that you might be interested in to buy.
Good luck.
I think you're right about this part but there are other things that feel differently. Due to Bay Area weather/topography, its much more conducive to outdoor living. People can exercise (hiking, biking, playing sports, etc.) outdoors year-round and its rarely inclement. I've seen pockets of this in Austin in the hill country, but in the summer months, people tend to stay indoors more. If you go somewhere like Dallas or Houston, its really flat, so on top of the weather, there just aren't that many places where you can go outside. You can go for walks or hang out at lakes, but its not the same as here.
Tying onto the above and the fact that in general, Texas is a lot more affordable, people stay indoors a lot more. Homes tend to be much larger with more square footage, more bedrooms and extra indoor amenities (media room, exercise room, etc.). Also, in general the housing stock by and large tends to be a lot newer. Here, people for the most part accept older/smaller places, due to cost and the fact they don't feel they need to live as much indoors. Often people will sacrifice square footage for more outdoor entertaining space, as an example.
I also find that Texas seems to have much more of a sunbelt sprawl feel. There are some nice downtown areas in the major cities, but outside of this, it seems to be mainly strip malls and not much in terms of walkable downtowns at the town level. You have manufactured downtown malls, such as Legacy in Plano and Domain in Austin (Santana Row is our equivalent), but less in terms of established, walkable downtowns. Many of the towns here are older, so the downtowns evolved along railroad corridors. I didn't see much of this in Texas (or other sunbelt cities for that matter).
For your budget can get a nice 2/maybe 3 BR SFH on the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel with better weather and less culture shock coming from Texas. I often need to escape SF/Oakland/Berkeley, and I'm a centrist Biden supporter. You'll also get more for your money and far fewer homeless etc.
Walnut Creek to Emeryville can be 45-50 mins in the morning, 30 during COVID but as long as you're not crossing the bridge the commute isn't too terrible.
You can also do a short term rental and then buy if you need to the down payment. Also helps narrow down on neighborhoods, which can vary here because it's not all recently built sprawl.
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